Method for displaying information responsive to sensing a physical presence proximate to a computer input device

ABSTRACT

In a computer system, a touch sensitive input device having touch sensitive auxiliary controls system can be used to anticipate a user&#39;s action. When a user&#39;s hand approaches a touch sensitive input device, feedback can be displayed on a display screen. A user can receive feedback without activating the input device. The feedback may take the form of status information related to the feature controlled by the input device and can vary depending upon the application open. Likewise, when the hand of a user is moved away from the touch sensitive input device, the feedback brought on by sensing the user&#39;s hand may disappear.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The instant application is a continuation-in part of commonly assigned,U.S. patent application entitled “Proximity Sensor in a Computer InputDevice” to Hinckley et al., filed Sep. 14, 1998 now U.S. Pat. No.6,456,275, and assigned Ser. No. 09/152,434, which is hereinincorporated by reference. Also, the instant application is acontinuation-in part of commonly assigned, U.S. patent applicationentitled “A Technique For Implementing a Two-Handed Desktop UseInterface For a Computer” to Hinckley, filed Sep. 14, 1998 nowabandoned, and assigned Ser. No. 09/152,432, which is hereinincorporated by reference. Further, the instant application is acontinuation-in part of commonly assigned, U.S. patent applicationentitled “Method of Interfacing With a Computer Using a Proximity Sensorin a Computer Input Device” to Hinckley et al., filed Sep. 14, 1998 nowU.S. Pat. No. 6,396,477, and assigned Ser. No. 09/152,443, which isherein incorporated by reference.

In addition, the instant application is a continuation-in part ofcommonly assigned, U.S. patent application entitled “A Technique ForImplementing an On-Demand Display Widget Through Controlled FadingInitiated By User Contact With a Touch Sensitive Input Device” toHinckley, filed Nov. 25, 1998 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,333,753, and assignedSer. No. 09/200,325, which is herein incorporated by reference and whichclaims priority to United States provisional patent application entitled“Toolglass Improvements—On-Demand Tool Sheet; Gesturing Through ToolSheets”, filed Sep. 14, 1998 and assigned Ser. No. 60/100,261. Theinstant application is also a continuation-in part of commonly assigned,U.S. patent application entitled “A Technique For Implementing anOn-Demand Tool Glass For Use in a Desktop User Interface” to Hinckley,filed Nov. 25, 1998 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,232,957 and assigned Ser. No.09/200,321, which is herein incorporated by reference and which claimspriority to United States provisional patent application entitled“Toolglass Improvements—On-Demand Tool Sheet; Gesturing Through ToolSheets”, filed Sep. 14, 1998 and assigned Ser. No. 60/100,261.

The present application is related to commonly assigned, copending U.S.patent application entitled “Method of Interacting With a Computer Usinga Proximity Sensor in a Computer Input Device” to Hinckley et al., filedApr. 5, 2000, and assigned Ser. No. 09/543,723, which is hereinincorporated by reference and which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/152,443 identified above.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Technical Field

The present invention relates to input devices for computer systems.More particularly, the present invention relates to the use of touchsensitive input devices in computer systems.

B. Related Art

Input devices for computerized systems such as keyboards, touchpads,trackballs, game controllers and mice, often include one or moreauxiliary controls such as joysticks, touchpads, trackballs, headsets,microphones, buttons, knobs, rocker switches, triggers, sliders, wheels,biometric sensors, etc. Auxiliary controls may be used alone or inconjunction with input devices and other auxiliary controls.

Most input devices create input signals using transducers, or switches.Switches are typically found in the buttons of mice, joysticks, and gamecontrollers, as well as in the keys of keyboards. Transducers are foundin mice and trackballs and create electrical signals based on themovement of balls in those devices or by optically detecting movement ofthe device across a surface. Transducers are also found in headsetswhere they convert speech signals into electrical signals. Touchpadscreate input signals using sensors that provide an electrical signalwhen the user contacts the touchpad that signal including the locationwithin the touchpad where contact is made.

Although it is desirable to increase the amount of information that aninput device and its auxiliary controls can provide to the computer, thenumber of transducers and switches that can be added to an input deviceis limited by the user's ability to remember all of the functions that aparticular transducer or switch performs and by the practicalities ofthe available or at least feasibly available real estate for theswitches and transducers on the input device (e.g., keyboard or mouse).The ability of a user to determine the functionality of each auxiliarycontrol is also generally limited to a static label on or near theauxiliary control, activating each auxiliary control, clicking a buttonto select a menu option to request help file or reading a user manual.Furthermore, the functionality of an auxiliary control may vary from onegame or application to another game or application. Thus, a static labelon an auxiliary control is of little value when the function and statusof the input device and its auxiliary controls change from applicationto application. In this regard, even if a user learns the assignment ofthe buttons and other controls in one game or application, another gameor application may assign the same buttons or controls differentfeatures. Similarly, the status of the feature controlled by theauxiliary control generally can only be determined by activating thecontrol.

Thus, there is a need to provide a user with the ability to betterdetermine the functionality and status of auxiliary controls regardlessof their context, (e.g., active application or game).

To address this need, indicators such as LEDs or small LCDs may beintegrated directly with the input device and its auxiliary controls toprovide feedback or state information. However, association of LEDs orLCDs with each auxiliary control increases both the amount of powerconsumed and the cost of the input device. Furthermore, LEDs and LCDshave very limited output forms and are separated from the main display(e.g., a computer monitor) causing the user to constantly have to lookaway from the screen and at the auxiliary control to determine thefunctionality or status of the control. Such constant shifts ofattention can mentally tire the user as he or she is forced torepetitively reacquire the current context. Accordingly, there is a needto provide a more efficient, convenient and/or cost effective way todetermine the functionality and/or status of auxiliary controls of inputdevices in a computer system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes many of the shortcomings of existinginput devices by providing touch sensitive input devices which havetouch sensitive auxiliary controls that sense a physical presence andprovide visual feedback on an on-screen display or on the controlitself, acoustic feedback (e.g., voice or music) or tactile feedback(e.g., vibration).

In an aspect of the present invention, keys, buttons, knobs, rockerswitches or other auxiliary controls of an input device such as akeyboard, touchpad, trackball, game controller, monitor, joystick,steering wheel, headset or mouse can be augmented with sensors thatdetect contact or extreme proximity of a user's hand. According toanother aspect, a sensed signal of the auxiliary control can provide theuser with an on-screen display of status, state information, tool tips,help text or other feedback relevant to the control the user has touchedwithout the user having activated (e.g., depress, turn, roll orotherwise activate) the control. Alternatively, acoustic or tactilefeedback may be provided to the user instead of or in addition to thefeedback provided by the on-screen display. Hence, a user can simplytouch different buttons or other controls to explore their functionassignment or status, or obtain other feedback. Such feedback can allowthe user to better understand the consequences of their action, shouldhe or she subsequently chooses to activate the control. Also, a user mayquickly and casually be able to view status information.

Aspects of the invention include providing context sensitive feedbackfor an auxiliary control in an on-screen display, such as a displaywidget (e.g., graphical user interface (GUI)), responsive to detectionof a user's hand. Hence, touch sensitive controls can be used to predictthe context of a user's action. The context of the situation can beestablished by preparatory actions by the user such as grabbing,touching or approaching a control. Knowing the context of the action,the computer can begin to execute and predict the will of the user.

According to another aspect of the invention, contexts of an auxiliarycontrol may include, but are not limited to, different types ofapplications such as games, utility, and productivity applications.Also, contexts may change within various portions of an application orgame.

In another aspect of the invention, when a GUI is displayed responsiveto detection of a physical presence proximate to or contacting anauxiliary control, a user may interact with the GUI using anotherauxiliary control or an input device including, but not limited to, amouse, touchpad or keypad. For example, if a volume control GUI isdisplayed, a user may adjust the volume with a mouse.

In another aspect of the invention, input devices including theirauxiliary controls may have a touch sensor which directly detects when aphysical presence (e.g., user) touches the device or its controls, so asto provide display and dismissal of feedback on an “on-demand” basis,e.g., whenever the user establishes or breaks physical hand contact withthe device.

For example, a transition in a touch indication provided by the devicereflective of the user then making contact with the device or control,such as by touching the device with a finger may cause a tool tip to bedisplayed. A transition indicative of a user breaking physical contactwith the device, such as by lifting his finger off the device, can causethe tool tip to be dismissed from the display. In one aspect of theinvention, to prevent user distraction, these detected transitionsinitiate corresponding predefined animation sequences that occur overpreset time intervals in which the feedback either begins to fade intoview (typically from an invisible, i.e., totally transparent state, toeventually a predefined semi-transparent state or non-transparent state)as soon as user contact begins, and then begins to fade out from view(i.e., eventually back to its invisible state) as soon as user contactwith the device is broken, e.g., as soon as the user lifts his or herhand away from the device.

In another aspect of the invention, toolbars, scrollbars and the likemay only be displayed on a display screen in response to detection of aphysical presence. Illustratively, touching, and not activating, anauxiliary control may cause on-screen display of a toolbar and breakingcontact with the control may cause dismissing of the toolbar. In oneaspect of the invention, a user may interface with the toolbar using anauxiliary control or input device as desired with one hand whilecontinuing to touch the auxiliary control which caused the on-screendisplay of the toolbar. According to this aspect, display clutter can bereduced and available application screen area increased at appropriatetimes during program execution consistent with and governed by useraction but without imposing any significant cognitive burden on the userto do so. This, in turn, is likely to significantly improve the “userexperience”.

These and other novel advantages, details, embodiments, features andobjects of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from following the detailed description of the invention, theattached claims and accompanying drawings, listed herein, which areuseful in explaining the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system according to anillustrative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of aninput device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a headset according to an illustrativeembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4A is a perspective view of a mouse according to an illustrativeembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4B is a bottom view of the mouse of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 4C is a perspective view of an exemplary circuit board of the mouseof FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5 is a top view of another illustrative embodiment of a mouseaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 6A is a left side view of another illustrative embodiment of amouse according to the present invention.

FIG. 6B is a left side view of another illustrative embodiment of amouse according to the present invention.

FIG. 6C is a right side view of another illustrative embodiment of amouse according to the present invention.

FIG. 6D is a right side view of another illustrative embodiment of amouse according to the present invention.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are a left side view and a top view, respectively, ofanother illustrative embodiment of a mouse according to the presentinvention.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are a left side view and a top view, respectively, ofanother illustrative embodiment of a mouse according to the presentinvention.

FIGS. 9A-9C are a left side view, a top view, and a right side view,respectively, of another illustrative embodiment of a mouse according tothe present invention.

FIGS. 10A-10H, are top views of different exemplary embodiments for amouse button according to the present invention.

FIG. 11A is a top view of another illustrative embodiment of a mouseaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 11B is a top view of another illustrative embodiment of a mouseaccording to the present invention.

FIGS. 12A and 12B are right side views of different exemplaryembodiments of mice according to the present invention.

FIGS. 13A-13D are left side views of different exemplary embodiments ofmice according to the present invention.

FIGS. 14A-14D are top views of different exemplary embodiments of miceshowing a touch sensor proximate to a wheel according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of an illustrative trackball according tothe present invention.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of an exemplary game controller having ajoystick according to the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of an exemplary game controller accordingto the present invention.

FIG. 18A is a perspective view of an illustrative keyboard according tothe present invention.

FIGS. 18B and 18C show portions of illustrative keyboards according tothe present invention.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view of an illustrative touchpad according tothe present invention.

FIG. 20 is a more detailed block diagram of the computer of FIG. 1.

FIG. 21 is an illustrative screen display that may appear before aninput device of the present invention is touched.

FIG. 22 is an image of an illustrative screen display after an inputdevice of the present invention has been touched.

FIG. 23 is an image of an illustrative screen display showing apull-down menu activated according to the present invention.

FIG. 24 is an image of an illustrative screen display showing a secondpull-down menu opened according to the present invention.

FIG. 25 is an image of an illustrative screen display showing an itemselected in a pull-down menu according to the present invention.

FIG. 26 is an image of an illustrative screen display showing a radialmenu according to the present invention.

FIG. 27 shows an illustrative graphical user interface that may appearon a display screen according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 28 shows an illustrative on-screen display that may appear on adisplay screen according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 29A and 29B show illustrative tool tip visual feedback that mayappear on a display screen according to exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 30A and 30B show illustrative visual feedback that may appear on adisplay screen according to exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 31 shows illustrative visual feedback that may appear on a displayscreen according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 32 is an image of an illustrative screen display showing a webbrowser that includes a current page.

FIG. 33 is an image of an illustrative screen display showing a webbrowser that includes a past page.

FIG. 34 is an image of an illustrative screen display showing a webbrowser that includes a next page.

FIGS. 35A-C show illustrative timing diagrams for controlling thedisplay of a tool tip according to illustrative embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 36A and 36B show illustrative timing diagrams for controlling thedisplay of a tool tip according to illustrative embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 37 depicts simplified high-level block diagram 900 of software andhardware components, situated within PC 20, that collectively form anillustrative implementation of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with illustrative embodiments of the present invention, anauxiliary control of an input device may be configured to detect when aphysical presence (e.g., user's hand, stylus) touches the control so asto provide display and dismissal of a display widget on an “on demand”basis. The display widget may be a graphical user interface (GUI) andinclude information such as functionality (e.g., tool tips) and/orstatus information on an “on-demand” basis. An exemplary list of displaywidgets includes toolbars, tool glass sheet, scroll bars, window framesand window decorations, title bars, floating tool palettes, modal andnon-modal dialog boxes, list or combo boxes, setting controls, buttons,text entry areas, etc.

A transition in a touch indication provided by the input devicereflective of the user then making physical contact with an auxiliarycontrol, such as by touching the control with a finger may cause adisplay widget to be displayed. A transition indicative of a userbreaking contact with the auxiliary control, such as by lifting hisfinger off the control, causes the display widget to be dismissed. Toprevent user distraction, these detected transitions can initiatecorresponding predefined animation sequences that occur over preset timeintervals in which the display widget either begins to fade into view(typically from an invisible, i.e., totally transparent, state toeventually a predefined semi-transparent state) as soon as user contactbegins, and then begins to fade out from view (i.e., eventually back toits invisible state) as soon as user contact with the auxiliary controlis broken, for example, as soon as the user lifts his or her finger fromthe control. Furthermore, depending on a specific touch-sensitiveauxiliary control used, it is sometimes preferable to begin the fadingafter a brief time delay or “cooling period” occurs. For example, theuser may reach the edge of the touchpad and “reclutch” his or her hand(e.g., briefly lift up his or her finger and then re-center it on thepad) to continue pointer motion. It might be annoying for the displaywidget to begin fading immediately when this happens. A brief time delay(e.g., approximately 0.5 to 1.0 seconds), coupled with continued contactsensing of the finger, prior to the start of the fading allows briefreclutchings of this sort without any changes to the screen display.Similarly, if a user has not touched the auxiliary control for asufficiently long period of time, a similar time delay, coupled withsensing for a release of user contact, prior to the start of a fade-inmight be used to prevent a short inadvertent contact from causing thedisplay widget from fading in and then out, and otherwise annoying theuser.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, touch induced displayand dismissal can also readily be used to display and dismiss a displaywidget (e.g., toolbar) on an “on-demand” basis by sensing contactbetween a user's preferred hand and another touch sensitive auxiliarycontrol or input device, such as, e.g., a touch sensitive mouse.Displaying a display widget in response to detection of touch,specifically when a user grabs an auxiliary control or input device, canexploit a user's desire, to utilize the display widget, implicit in theuser's action in reaching for and grabbing the auxiliary control orinput device. The display widget would be dismissed when the userreleases the auxiliary control or input device, for example, when touchcontact is broken. Displaying and dismissing a display widget in thisfashion advantageously places little, if any, additional cognitiveburden on the user.

FIG. 1 and the related discussion are intended to provide a brief,general description of a suitable computing environment in which theinvention may be implemented. Although not required, the invention willbe described, at least in part, in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a personal computer. Generally, program modules includeroutine programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the inventionmay be practiced with other computer system configurations, includinghand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remoteprocessing devices that are linked through a communications network. Ina distributed computing environment, program modules may be located inboth local and remote memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system for implementing theinvention includes an illustrative computer system with a conventionalpersonal computer 20, including a processing unit (CPU) 21, a systemmemory 22, and a system bus 23 that couples various system componentsincluding the system memory 22 to the processing unit 21. The system bus23 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory busor memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of avariety of bus architectures. The system memory 22 includes read onlymemory (ROM) 24 and random access memory (RAM) 25. A basic input/output(BIOS) 26, containing the basic routine that helps to transferinformation between elements within the personal computer 20, such asduring start-up, is stored in ROM 24. The personal computer 20 furtherincludes a hard disk drive 27 for reading from and writing to a harddisk (not shown), a magnetic disk drive 28 for reading from or writingto removable magnetic disk 29, and an optical disk drive 30 for readingfrom or writing to a removable optical disk 31 such as a CD ROM or otheroptical media. The hard disk drive 27, magnetic disk drive 28, andoptical disk drive 30 are connected to the system bus 23 by a hard diskdrive interface 32, magnetic disk drive interface 33, and an opticaldrive interface 34, respectively. The drives and the associatedcomputer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thepersonal computer 20.

Although the exemplary environment described herein employs the harddisk, the removable magnetic disk 29 and the removable optical disk 31,it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types ofcomputer readable media which can store data that is accessible by acomputer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read onlymemory (ROM), and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operatingenvironment.

A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk, magneticdisk 29, optical disk 31, ROM 24 or RAM 25, including an operatingsystem 35, one or more application programs 36, other program modules37, program data 38, and device drivers 60. The device drivers 60processes commands and information entered by a user through inputdevices 43, which can include a keyboard, mouse, game controller,trackball, touchpad. The input devices also can have auxiliary controlssuch as a joystick, game pad, touchpad, trackball, key, headset,monitor, microphone, button, knob, rocker switch, trigger, slider,wheel, lever, touch strip, biometric sensor, etc. The input devices 43may be wired or wirelessly coupled to the personal computer 20.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, at leastone of the input devices includes a touch sensor 40 and an input devicesuch as a mouse may have both a touch sensor 40 and a movementtransducer 42. Touch sensor 40 is capable of generating a signal thatindicates when a physical presence, such as a user's hand, is touchingone of the input devices 43 itself or an auxiliary control thereof.Movement transducer 42 is capable of generating a signal that indicateswhen a user causes part of the input device to move. The signalsgenerated by touch sensor 40 and movement transducer 42 can be passedalong a conductor connected to the processing unit 21 through a serialport interface 46 that is coupled to the system bus 23, but may beconnected by other interfaces, such as a sound card, a parallel port, agame port or a universal serial bus (USB).

A monitor 47 or other type of display device may also be connected tothe system bus 23 via an interface, such as a video adapter 48. Inaddition to the monitor 47, personal computers may typically includeother peripheral output devices, such as a speaker 45 and printers (notshown).

The personal computer 20 may operate in a networked environment usinglogic connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remotecomputer 49. The remote computer 49 may be another personal computer, ahand-held device, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device orother network node, and typically includes many or all of the elementsdescribed above relative to the personal computer 20, although only amemory storage device 50 has been illustrated in FIG. 1. The logicconnections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network (LAN) 51 anda wide area network (WAN) 52. Such networking environments arecommonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer network intranets, andthe Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the personal computer 20 isconnected to the local area network 51 through a network interface oradapter 53. When used in a WAN networking environment, the personalcomputer 20 typically includes a modem 54 or other means forestablishing communications over the wide area network 52, such as theInternet. The modem 54, which may be internal or external, is connectedto the system bus 23 via the serial port interface 46. In a networkenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the personal computer20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storagedevices. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown areexemplary and other means of establishing a communications link betweenthe computers may be used. For example, a wireless communication linkmay be established between one or more portions of the network.

FIG. 2 is an expanded block diagram of a portion of one embodiment of aninput device 43 of FIG. 1. Input device 43 includes an array of fourtouch sensors 100, 102, 104, and 106. The sensors may correspond to fourauxiliary control of the input device. Each of the sensors produces anelectrical signal along a respective conductor 108, 110, 112, and 114,which are connected to an analog-to-digital converter and multiplexer116. Touch sensors 100, 102, 104, and 106, generate their electricalsignals based on actual contact between the user and a portion of thesensor or based on extreme proximity between the user and the sensor.Those touch sensors that rely on contact are referred to as contactsensors and those that rely on proximity are referred to as proximitysensors. In the context of this application, a touch sensor is touchedwhen it is contacted in the case of contact sensors or when the user issufficiently proximate to the sensor in the case of proximity sensors.It should be understood that according to the present invention thesensor could be configured such that the required degree of contact for“touch” and “release” are different. For example, contact may berequired to detect a “touch” event, while a breaking of contact and lossof proximity many be required to detect a “release” event. Similarly, inembodiments with a pure proximity sensor, very close proximity may berequired to detect a “touch” event, but a larger threshold (distance)may be required to detect a “release” event.

In some contact sensor embodiments, a touch sensor includes a conductivefilm that has a capacitance that changes when it is touched. This sensoralso includes a capacitive measuring circuit that generates anelectrical signal based on the change in capacitance of the conductivefilm. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other contact sensortechnologies are available such as photodiodes, piezoelectric materials,and capacitive pressure sensors. Any of these sensors may be used withinthe context of the present invention. In one proximity sensorembodiment, the touch sensor uses reflected light from an LED to detectwhen the user is proximate the sensor. A chip used to drive the LED andsense the reflected light according to this illustrative embodiment maybe produced by Hamamatsu Corporation of Bridgewater, N.J. Otherproximity sensor embodiments use changes in electric or magnetic fieldsnear the input device to determine when the user is proximate to thedevice.

In embodiments of the present invention, the touch sensors may providethe same information regardless of where on the touch sensor the usertouches the input device or the portion of the sensor to which the useris proximate. Thus, these touch sensors decouple touch data fromposition data. FIG. 2 provides an illustrative input device with thistype of touch sensor.

In other embodiments, for example with touchpads, touch screens, andtouch tablets, a given touch sensor may provide location informationthat would indicate where the user made contact within that touch sensoror where the user came closest to the touch sensor within the touchsensor. In these devices, one cannot specify positional data withouttouching the device, nor can one touch the device without specifying aposition. Hence, touch sensing and position sensing are tightly coupledin these devices.

Referring to FIG. 2, analog-to-digital converter and multiplexer 116converts the analog electrical signals found on conductors 108, 110,112, and 114, into digital values carried on a line 118. Line 118 isconnected to microcontroller 120, which controls multiplexer 116 toselectively monitor the state of the four touch sensors. Microcontroller120 also receives inputs from various other sensors on the input device.For simplicity, these inputs are shown collectively as input 122. Thoseskilled in the art will recognize that different input devices andauxiliary controls provide different input signals depending on thetypes of motion sensors in the input device. Examples of motion sensorsinclude switches, which provide signals indicative of the motion neededto close a switch; microphones, which provide signals indicative of airmovement created by an audio signal; encoder wheels, which providesignals indicative of the motion of a mouse ball, trackball, or mousewheel; and resistance wipers, which provide electrical signalsindicative of the movements of a joystick. Each of these motion sensorsacts as an input generator that is capable of generating inputinformation to be sent to the computer system. Based on the particularinput generator, this input information can include a depressible key'sstate, a depressible button's state, sound information, or movementinformation.

Those skilled in the art will also recognize that the number of inputlines tied to microcontroller 120 depends on the number of sensors onthe input device and the configuration of the input device. For example,for a keyboard, the microcontroller uses input lines to determine if anyof the auxiliary controls have been activated. The micro controlleraccomplishes this using a multiplexer (not shown) to sequentially testthe state of each auxiliary control on the keyboard. The techniques usedto detect these auxiliary control states closures are well known in thekeyboard art.

In a mouse or trackball, input lines 122 include lines for detecting theclosure of switches and lines for detecting the rotation of encoderwheels. The switches are located beneath buttons on the mouse ortrackball. The encoder wheels track the movement of the mouse ball ortrackball. Typically, one encoder wheel tracks movement in the Xdirection and another encoder wheel tracks movement in the Y direction.In most embodiments, each encoder wheel has its own associated inputline into microcontroller 120. In some mice, an additional encoder wheeltracks the rotation of a wheel located on top of the mouse.

In some mice, the X and Y movement of the mouse is tracked by a separateoptics microcontroller that is connected to microcontroller 120 throughlines 122. The optics microcontroller uses optical data to determinemovement of the mouse. The optical microcontroller converts this opticaldata into movement values that are transmitted to microcontroller 120along input lines 122.

In a game controller such as a game pad, input lines 122 include linesfor detecting the closure of multiple switches on the game pad as wellas lines for detecting the rotation of wheels on the game pad. Injoysticks, input lines 122 can include lines connected to resistancewipers on the joystick as well as switches on the joystick. In headsets,lines 122 include multiple lines that carry multi-bit digital valuesindicative of the magnitude of the analog electrical signal generated bythe microphone. An analog-to-digital converter typically produces thesedigital values. To reduce the weight of the headset, theanalog-to-digital converter and microcontroller 120 can be found on asoundboard located within the computer. To further reduce the weight ofthe headset, multiplexer and A-to-D converter 116 of FIG. 2 can also beimplemented on the soundboard.

Microcontroller 120 produces an output 124, which is provided to serialport interface 46 of FIG. 1. Typically, output 124 is a serial, digitalvalue that indicates which motion sensor or touch sensor has beenactivated. For keyboards, the digital values include scan codes thatuniquely identify the key, other auxiliary control or touch sensor onthe keyboard that has been activated. For mice, the digital valuesinclude a mouse packet that describes the current state of each switchand each touch sensor on the mouse as well as the distances that themouse wheel and mouse ball have moved since the last mouse packet wassent.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a headset 150 of the present invention.Headset 150 includes a microphone 152, a support piece 154, a touchsensor 156, and an output line 158. Support piece 154 is designed toloop around a user's ear to support the headset such that microphone 152is positioned in front of the user's mouth.

Output line 158 carries signals from microphone 152 and from touchsensor 156. In some embodiments, headset 150 is connected to a computersystem that includes a speech recognition system. In these embodiments,the speech recognition system is inactive unless touch sensor 156indicates that a user is touching headset 150. The activation of thespeech recognition system can include loading the speech recognitionsystem into random access memory when the user first touches headset150. It can also include prompting a speech recognition system thatresides in random access memory so that it can process input speechsignals. In either case, by only activating the speech recognitionsystem when headset 150 indicates that the user is touching the headset,the present invention reduces the likelihood that extraneous speech willbe processed by the speech recognition system.

FIG. 4A is a perspective view of one embodiment of a mouse 170 accordingto an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. Mouse 170includes a palm-rest 172, a left button 174, a right button 176, a wheel178, a side 180, and an output line 182. Palm-rest 172, left button 174,and two side areas 184 and 186 of side 180 are coated with separateconductive films. Each of the conductive films is connected to and formspart of a separate sensor such as sensors 100, 102, 104, and 106 of FIG.2.

FIG. 4B shows a bottom view of mouse 170. Mouse 170 includes a trackball190 located in a trackball nest 192. When mouse 170 is moved across asurface through force applied at palm-rest 172, side 180, left button174, or right button 176, trackball 190 rolls within nest 192. Referringto FIG. 4C, a pair of encoder wheels 194 and 196 detects this rolling.

FIG. 4C is a perspective view of some of the internal electronics 189 ofmouse 170. In FIG. 4C, trackball 190 has been omitted for clarity.Internal electronics 189 include encoder wheels 194 and 196, whichdetect movements of trackball 190 along two perpendicular directions.The encoder wheels produce electrical signals that are provided tomicrocontroller 200, which also receives inputs from switches 202 and204 located under left button 174 and right button 176, respectively.Switches 202 and 204 indicate when left button 174 and right button 176,respectively, have been depressed by the user. Microcontroller 200 alsoreceives signals from switch 201, which indicates when wheel 178 hasbeen depressed, and an encoder wheel 203, which indicates rotationalmovement of wheel 178. Microcontroller 200 also receives electricalsignals from the four sensors attached to the conductive films on thepalm-rest 172, left button 174, and side areas 184 and 186 of FIG. 4A.These four sensors are grouped together in FIG. 4C as sensor array 206.The left button 174 and side areas 184 and 186 may be auxiliary controlswhich when pressed are activated to perform a function.

Thus, a mouse according to exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention is able to detect when certain areas of the mouse are beingtouched and when portions of the mouse or the entire mouse are beingmoved. Specifically, the conductive films on the palm-rest 172, leftbutton 174, and side areas 184 and 186 indicate when the user istouching these areas. Note that even if the user does not move the mouseor press a button, the sensors associated with the conductive films ofFIG. 4A will generate an electrical signal when the user touches themouse. Encoder wheels 194 and 196 generate a separate electrical signalwhen the user moves the mouse and switches 202, 204, and 201 generateseparate electrical signals when the user depresses buttons 174 and 176,and wheel 178 respectively. Thus, an exemplary mouse according to thepresent invention adds functionality without increasing dexterity neededto manipulate the controls thereof.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, trackball 190 andencoder wheels 194 and 196 are replaced by a solid-stateposition-tracking device that collects images of the surface that themouse travels over to determine changes in the position of the mouse.According to these exemplary embodiments, the mouse typically includes alight source used to illuminate the surface, an optics system used tocollect images of the surface, and a processor used to compare thevarious images to determine if the mouse has moved, and if so, in whatdirection. Since the solid-state position-tracking device convertsmovement into an electrical signal, it can be considered to be asophisticated transducer or motion sensor.

FIGS. 5, 6A-6D, 7A-7B, 8A-8B, 9A-9C, 10A-10H, 11A-11B, 12A-12B, 13A-13D,and 14A-14D show alternative configurations for a mouse according toillustrative embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a top viewof a mouse that only has a touch sensor on its palm rest 600. FIGS. 6Aand 6B, show separate illustrative mice embodiments with each having asensor at the palm rest and along the left side of the mouse. In FIG.6A, which is a side view, a single sensor 602 covers both the palm restand the left side of the mouse. In FIG. 6B, also a side view, one sensorcovers a palm rest 604 and a separate sensor covers a left side 606.

FIGS. 6C and 6D show separate illustrative mice embodiments of thepresent invention with each having a sensor at the palm rest and alongthe right side of the mouse. In FIG. 6C, which is a right side view, asingle sensor 603 covers both the right side and the palm rest. In FIG.6D, also a right side view, one sensor 605 covers the palm rest and aseparate sensor 607 covers the right side.

FIGS. 7A and 7B show a side view and a top view, respectively, of anexemplary mouse embodiment having a single sensor 608 across a palm restand a left side of the mouse, and a separate sensor 610 on the leftbutton of the mouse. FIGS. 8A and 8B show a side view and a top view,respectively, of an exemplary mouse embodiment having a single touchsensor 612 across the palm rest and left side of the mouse, a touchsensor 614 on the left button of the mouse and a touch sensor 616 on theright button of the mouse.

FIGS. 9A-9C show a left side view, a top view and a right side view,respectively, of an illustrative mouse 690 of the present invention.Mouse 690 includes a left side sensor 692, a palm sensor 694, a rightside sensor 696, and a button sensor 698. In mouse 690, right sidesensor 696 and left side sensor 692 are separate from palm sensor 694.In another illustrative embodiment of the present invention, these threesensors can be formed as a single sensor.

FIGS. 10A-10H show top views of different exemplary mice embodimentsshowing possible configurations for touch sensors on the left button ofa mouse. These button configurations may appear alone on the mouse or incombination with other sensors on other parts of the mouse. FIG. 10Ashows a single solid sensor 618 across the entire left button. FIG. 10Bshows a set of six sensor strips 620 with each sensor strip producing aseparate electrical signal when touched. FIG. 10C shows two regions 624and 626 separated by a ridge 628. Both region 624 and 626 end at a frontend 627 of button 622. FIG. 10D shows two regions 634 and 637 separatedby a ridge 636, where regions 634 and 637 both end at a side end 631 ofbutton 630. The configurations of buttons 622 and 630 are particularlyuseful in paging through documents as discussed below. FIG. 10E shows abutton configuration for a button 640 having four separate sensor areasformed as squares 641, 642, 643, and 644. In some embodiments, the linesthat separate the four sensor areas are formed as ridges that have adifferent topography from the sensor areas. FIG. 10F also shows fourseparate sensors on a button 646. In FIG. 10F, three of the sensor areas650, 651 and 652 are found at a front end of button 646, and theremaining sensor 648 covers the remainder of button 646. FIG. 10G showsa button 660 with nine sensor regions arranged in a layout similar to akeypad. FIG. 10H shows a button 670 with an outer circle of eightsensors 672 that surrounds a central sensor 674. The configuration ofbutton 670 is especially useful for manipulating radial menus.

FIGS. 11A and 11B show illustrative mice embodiments that includeseparate sensors on both buttons of the mouse. In FIG. 11A, buttons 700and 702 have sensors but palm rest 704 does not have a sensor. In FIG.11B, buttons 706 and 708 and palm rest 710 have separate sensors.

FIGS. 12A and 12B show exemplary mice embodiments with multiple sensorsalong the right side of the mouse. In FIG. 12A, which is a right sideview, there are two sensors 720 and 722 along the right side. In FIG.12B, there are three sensors 724, 726, and 728 along the right side.

FIGS. 13A-13D show side views of exemplary mice embodiments withmultiple sensors along the left side of the mouse. The mouse of FIG. 13Ahas two sensors 734 and 736 along the left side. In FIG. 13B, the mousehas three touch sensors 738, 740, and 742, each separated by a space.The mouse of FIG. 13C also has three touch sensors along the left side.However, in FIG. 13C, middle touch sensor 744, which is located betweensensors 746 and 748, has a raised surface and is formed as a ridgebetween sensors 746 and 748. The raised surface of sensor 744 providestactile feedback to the user to allow the user to determine the positionof their thumb without looking at the mouse. FIG. 13D shows a mouseembodiment with a plurality of strips 752 running along the left side ofthe mouse.

Note that all of the exemplary embodiments of FIGS. 12A-12B and FIGS.13A-13D can be practiced with a sensor located on the palm rest and/or asensor located on the left button and/or a sensor located on the rightbutton.

FIGS. 14A-14D are top views of illustrative mice embodiments with touchsensors proximate a wheel on a mouse. In FIG. 14A, the touch sensor islocated directly on a wheel 760. In FIG. 14B, one touch sensor 762 islocated forward of a wheel 764, and one touch sensor 766 is located inback of wheel 764. In the embodiment of FIG. 14B, wheel 764 does nothave a touch sensor. In FIG. 14C, one touch sensor 770 is located infront of a wheel 768 and one touch sensor 772 is located in back ofwheel 768. In addition, wheel 768 includes a touch sensor. In theembodiment of FIG. 14D, touch sensors are located on a wheel 774, frontarea 776, which is in front of wheel 774, back area 778, which is inback of wheel 774, and palm rest 780.

Although various exemplary embodiments have been described withparticularity with respect to touch sensor location in FIGS. 5, 6A-6D,7A-7B, 8A-8B, 9A-9C, 10A-10H, 11A-11B, 12A-12B, 13A-13D, and 14A-14D, itshould be noted that sensors may be included in other locations. Forexample, it is possible to combine some or all of the touch sensorsillustrated in one embodiment with some or all of the touch sensorsillustrated in one embodiment with some or all of the touch sensorsillustrated in another embodiment. Further, it should be understood thatmany of the touch sensor locations including, but not restricted to,those on the sides of the mice in FIGS. 5, 6A-6D, 7A-7B, 8A-8B, 9A-9C,10A-10H, 11A-11B, 12A-12B, 13A-13D, and 14A-14D may be conductive filmson top of auxiliary controls, where the controls can be activated toperform a function when pressed. In this instance, one set of electricalsignals is generated when the control is touched and a second set ofelectrical signals is generated when the control is activated. Incertain illustrative embodiments of the invention, various miceincluding their auxiliary controls (e.g., buttons, wheels) can detect aphysical presence (e.g., a finger) contacting a touch sensitive surfacethereof, the physical presence representing an explicit user request todisplay a display widget on a display screen and/or to generate otherfeedback (e.g., acoustic, tactile). The feedback can provide informationto the user such as status information, control functionality, and helptext. The information may vary from application to application. In someembodiments of the invention, the position of the display widget on thedisplay screen may track the movement of the physical presence acrossthe touch sensitive surface.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of an illustrative trackball 220 of thepresent invention. Trackball 220 includes a base 222, buttons 224 and226, and a ball 228. In one embodiment of the present invention,trackball 228 can be coated with a conductive film that is contacted bythree rotating metal wheels (not shown) in base 222. One of the metalwheels is contacted by a conductive sheet that sits behind the wheel andis pressed into the wheel by a spring force. The conductive sheet isfurther connected to a touch sensor that produces an electrical signalwhen a user touches trackball 228. The other two wheels in base 222 formtwo orthogonal motion sensors (not shown) capable of tracking the rotarymotion of trackball 228 in base 222. Beneath buttons 224 and 226, base222 includes two switches that are capable of generating electricalsignals when a user depresses buttons 224 and 226. Thus, trackball 220is able to provide one electrical signal based on the user simplytouching ball 228 and separate electrical signals based on the usermoving trackball 228 or depressing buttons 224 or 226. Also, one or moreauxiliary controls, which can be activated to perform functions, may belocated on the base 222 around the periphery of the trackball 228. Theauxiliary controls may have a touch sensitive conductive film thereonand may be activated to perform functions in response to a user pressingthe control thereby generating one set of electrical signals when thecontrol is touched and a second set of electrical signals when thecontrol is activated. In exemplary embodiments of the invention, thetrackball and its auxiliary controls (e.g., buttons) can detect aphysical presence (e.g., a finger) contacting a touch sensitive surfacethereof, the physical presence representing an explicit user request todisplay a display widget on a display screen and/or to generate otherfeedback (e.g., acoustic, tactile). The feedback can provide informationto the user such as status information, control functionality, and helptext. The information may vary from application to application. In someembodiments of the invention, the position of the display widget on thedisplay screen may track the movement of the physical presence acrossthe touch sensitive surface.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of an illustrative game controller havinga joystick that includes a base 242, a handle 244, and a trigger 246,and buttons 248, 250, and 252. In one embodiment of the presentinvention, trigger 246 can be coated with a conductive film that isconnected to a touch sensor within base 242. In further embodiments,button 248 may also be coated with a conductive film connected to aseparate touch sensor in base 242. Trigger 246 and buttons 248, 250, and252 may be further connected to switches that provide respectiveelectrical signals when the user depresses the respective buttons ortrigger. Handle 244 can be connected to a set of transducers that trackthe relative motion of handle 244 relative to base 242. Thus, the gamecontroller can provide a set of electrical signals when the user istouching trigger 246 or button 248 and a separate set of electricalsignals when the user moves handle 244 or moves trigger 246 or buttons248, 250, or 252.

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of another illustrative game controlleraccording to the present invention. In FIG. 17, a game controller in theform of a game pad 260 is depicted. The game pad 260 has side buttons262 and 264, left hand buttons 266, 268, 270, 272, 274, and 276 andright hand buttons 278, 280, 282, 284, 286, and 288. In addition, gamepad 260 has a start button 290 and a select button 292. In someembodiments of the present invention, side buttons 262 and 264 may eachbe coated with a conductive film that is connected to a respective touchsensor within game pad 260. Game pad 260 can also include a plurality ofswitches, one switch for each button on the game pad. Thus, in someembodiments, game pad 260 is able to provide one set of signalsindicative of when the user is touching side buttons 262 and 264 and asecond set of electrical signals indicative of when the user hasdepressed a button on game pad 260.

In illustrative embodiments of the invention, game controllers such asthose of FIGS. 16 and 17 including their auxiliary controls (e.g.,buttons, joystick, trigger) can detect a physical presence (e.g., afinger) contacting a touch sensitive surface thereof, the physicalpresence representing an explicit user request to display a displaywidget on a display screen and/or to generate other feedback (e.g.,acoustic, tactile). The feedback can provide information to the usersuch as status information, control functionality, and help text. Theinformation may vary from application to application. In someembodiments of the invention, the position of the display widget on thedisplay screen may track the movement of the physical presence acrossthe touch sensitive surface.

FIG. 18A depicts a keyboard 300 according to an exemplary embodiment ofthe present invention. The keyboard 300 has a typical QWERTY layout 302on the left side of the keyboard and a numeric keypad 304 on the rightside. Numeric keypad 304 includes the numbers 0-9 with the numbers 1-9appearing in a 3×3 box. In some embodiments, all nine of these keys canbe covered with a conductive film. In other embodiments, other keys andauxiliary controls on the keyboard may be covered by the conductivefilm. The conductive film on each key is connected to and forms part ofa separate touch sensor in keyboard 300. The fact that each key has aconductive film means that the keys can each provide two signals. Onesignal may be provided when the user touches, but does not depress thekey, and a second signal may be provided when the user depresses thekey.

Additional touch sensors can be located on keyboard casing 301 atportions 306 and 307 below space bar 308, at portion 309 below arrowkeys 310, and at a portion 311 below keypad 304. Arrow keys 310 aretypically used by the user to move a cursor across the display. Notethat although keyboard 300 is shown with touch sensors on the keys andtouch sensors on portions 306, 307, 309, and 311, other exemplaryembodiments of the invention may only have touch sensors on the keys oronly on one of the portions 306, 307, 309, and 311. In other exemplaryembodiments, different combinations of these touch sensors can be foundon the keyboard 300. In addition, some or all of the touch sensors onportions 306, 307, 309, and 311 may be proximity sensors. Touch sensors306, 307, 309 and 311 may represent many types of auxiliary controlsincluding, but not limited to, a joystick, game pad, touchpad,trackball, button, knob, rocker switch, trigger, slider, wheel, lever,etc. The proximity sensors can detect the user's hand when it is nearthe sensor without requiring the hand to actually contact the sensor.Generally, one signal is provided when the user touches, but does notactivate (e.g., depress, turn, roll), the auxiliary control, and asecond signal is provided when the user activates the auxiliary control.In exemplary embodiments of the invention, a keyboard including itsauxiliary controls can detect a physical presence (e.g., a finger)contacting a touch sensitive surface thereof, the physical presencerepresenting an explicit user request to display a display widget on adisplay screen and/or to generate other feedback (e.g., acoustic,tactile). The feedback can provide information to the user such asstatus information, control functionality, and help text. Theinformation may vary from application to application. In someembodiments of the invention, the position of the display widget on thedisplay screen may track the movement of the physical presence acrossthe touch sensitive surface.

FIG. 18B shows a portion of another illustrative keyboard according tothe present invention with auxiliary control inputs including buttons312A-312G and touch sensitive control knob 314. The buttons 312A-312Geach may have touch sensors. FIG. 18C shows a portion of yet anotherillustrative keyboard according to the present invention with a touchsensitive rocker switch 315 and buttons 312A-312G, each of which maybetouch sensitive.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view of an illustrative touchpad 2000 accordingto the present invention. This touchpad may be a conventional touchpad,without any modifications, currently available from SynapticsCorporation of San Jose, Calif. Touchpad 2000 is formed of touchsensitive surface (tablet) 2100 that senses two-dimensional position andcontact area (surface area) of a finger of a user as that fingercontacts and moves across the surface. In addition, touchpad 2000contains buttons 2220, 2240, 2260 and 2280 peripherally situated to thetouch sensitive surface. One or more of the buttons 2220, 2240, 2260 and2280 may be touch sensitive. The output of the touchpad can be routed toa computer system such as shown in FIG. 1. In embodiments of theinvention, a touchpad including its auxiliary controls can detect aphysical presence (e.g., a finger) contacting a touch sensitive surfacethereof, the physical presence representing an explicit user request todisplay a display widget on a display screen and/or to generate otherfeedback (e.g., acoustic, tactile). The feedback can provide informationto the user such as status information, control functionality, and helptext. The information may vary from application to application. In someembodiments of the invention, the position of the display widget on thedisplay screen may track the movement of the physical presence acrossthe touch sensitive surface.

As has been described, keys, buttons, knobs, rocker switches, or otherauxiliary controls of an input device can be augmented with sensors thatdetect contact or extreme proximity of a physical presence including,but not limited to, a user's hand (e.g., finger, palm) or a stylus.Illustrative input devices have been shown and described previouslyincluding mice (FIGS. 4A-14B), trackballs (FIG. 15), game controllers(FIGS. 16 and 17), keyboards (FIGS. 18A-18C) and touchpads (FIG. 19).According to embodiments of the present invention such sensed signalscan be used to provide the user with on-screen displays of status, stateinformation, or other feedback relevant to the control that the user hastouched.

FIG. 20 is a more detailed block diagram of computer 20 useful indescribing a message routing system of according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 20, input device 43provides a serial binary signal to serial interface 46. Input device 43can include any of the input devices and their auxiliary controlsdescribed above that have touch sensors.

Serial interface 46 converts the serial binary signal from input device43 into parallel multi-bit values that are passed to device driver 60.In many embodiments of the present invention, device driver 60 can beimplemented as a software routine that is executed by CPU 21 of FIG. 1.In these embodiments, device driver 60 can be input device specific anddesigned to interact with a particular input device and its auxiliarycontrols based on a designated protocol. Thus, if input device 43 is amouse, device driver 60 is a mouse driver that is designed to receivemouse packets generated by the mouse using a mouse packet protocol. Ifinput device 43 is a keyboard, device driver 60 is a keyboard driverdesigned to receive keyboard scan codes indicative of a key beingdepressed or a touch sensor being touched.

Based on the designated protocol, device driver 60 converts themulti-bit values into device messages that are passed to operatingsystem 35. These device messages indicate what events have taken placeon the input device. For example if a touch sensor on a mouse has beentouched, the message indicates that the particular sensor is beingtouched. When the touch sensor is released, a separate message isgenerated by device driver 60 to indicate that the touch sensor has beenreleased.

The messages generated by device driver 60 are provided to operatingsystem 35, which controls the routing of these messages. According toillustrative embodiments, the device messages are usually sent to afocus application 812. The focus application is typically theapplication that has the top-most window on the display.

In some illustrative embodiments, operating system 35 maintains a listof message hook procedures that have been registered with the operatingsystem. In these illustrative embodiments, operating system 35sequentially passes the device message to each message hook procedure onthe list before sending the message to focus application 812. Suchmessage hook procedures are shown generally as message hook procedures810 of FIG. 20. Most message hook procedures simply evaluate the devicemessage to determine if some action should be taken. After evaluatingthe device message, the message hook procedure returns a value tooperating system 35 indicating that the operating system should pass thedevice message to the next procedure in the list. Some message hookprocedures have the ability to “eat” a device message by returning avalue to operating system 35 that indicates that the operating systemshould not pass the device message to any other message hook proceduresor to the focus application.

The message hook procedures and the focus application use the devicemessages, especially those indicating that a touch sensor has beentouched, to initiate a variety of functions that are discussed below.

For example, FIGS. 21 and 22 depict images of screens displayed byvarious applications of the present invention that utilize devicemessages generated based on signals from an input device according toillustrative embodiments of the present invention such as mouse 170 ortrackball 220 of FIGS. 4A and 15, respectively. FIG. 21 depicts an imageof a screen 320 that shows a virtual desktop 322. Virtual desktop 322includes images of icons 324 and 326 as well as an open window 328. Openwindow 328 is associated with a word processing application known asMicrosoft Word®, offered by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.

In window 328, a caret 330 is positioned within a sentence of an opendocument. Caret 330 may be positioned by moving mouse 170 or ball 228 oftrackball 220. In FIG. 21, caret 330 appears as a vertical line thatextends between two smaller horizontal lines. Those skilled in the artwill recognize that caret 330 can have many different shapes, andtypically appears as an arrow on desktop 322.

The position of caret 330 within the sentence of window 328 causes atool tip 332 to appear. Tool tip 332 indicates who entered the word thatcaret 330 is positioned over.

Window 328 also includes a tool bar 334 that includes drawing tools thatcan be used to draw pictures in the document of window 328.

According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention such asshown in FIG. 21, caret 330, tool tip 332, and tool bar 334 only appearin window 328 while the user is touching a portion of the input devicesuch as an auxiliary control (e.g., button or button combination)assigned to provide a tool tip while in the word processing application.If the user is not touching the input device, caret 330, tool tip 332,and tool bar 334 disappear. FIG. 22 shows an image of display 320 whenthe user is not touching a portion of the input device. By eliminatingtool bar 334, caret 330, and tool tip 332 when the user is not touchingthe input device, the present invention can reduce the clutter found inwindow 328 and make it easier for the user to read the document shown inwindow 328.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the disappearance of caret330, tool tip 332, and tool bar 334 when the user is not touching theinput device can be controlled independently. Thus, the user maycustomize window 328 such that tool tip 332 and tool bar 334 disappearwhen the user releases the input device, but caret 330 remains visible.In addition, the rate at which items disappear and reappear can becontrolled. Thus, it is possible to fade images off the display and tofade them back onto the display as the user releases and then touchesthe input device. In some illustrative embodiments of the invention, thefade-out period is 0.7 to 1.0 seconds to minimize distraction, and thefade-in period is 0.0 seconds for the caret, which appears instantly,and 0.3 seconds for toolbars. In certain embodiments, the fade-out timemay be a variable configurable by a user with a preset default period.

FIGS. 23-25 show a series of illustrative display screens that includepull-down menus that can be displayed as a result of keyboard messagesfrom keyboard 300 of FIG. 18A. In particular, in screen image 350 ofFIG. 23, an application generates an active window 352 on virtualdesktop 354 that includes an image of a pull-down menu 356. Pull-downmenu 356 is associated with a menu heading entitled “Tools” found in amenu bar 358. Pull-down menu 356 is displayed in response to a keyboardmessage that indicates that the user is touching but not depressing oneof the keys of numeric keypad 304 of keyboard 300.

In other exemplary embodiments, the user may move left and right acrossmenu bar 358 by using the keys representing the numbers “4” and “6” onnumeric keypad 304. As the user moves across menu bar 358 a differentpull-down menu can be displayed for each respective menu heading.Specifically, by touching the key representing the number “4”, the usercauses a keyboard message to be sent to the application, which changesthe display so that the menu heading to the left of the current menuheading in header menu 358 is displayed. Thus, if the pull-down menu forthe menu heading “Tools” is currently displayed in window 352, touchingthe key representing the number “4” causes a pull-down menu associatedwith the menu heading “Insert” to be displayed. Similarly, the user cancause a pull-down menu to appear for a menu heading to the right of thecurrent menu heading by touching the key representing the number “6” onnumeric keypad 304. Thus, if the current pull-down menu is associatedwith the menu heading “Tools”, and the user touches the key representingthe number “6”, the pull-down menu associated with the menu heading“Format” in header menu 358 will be displayed. This is shown in FIG. 24where pull-down menu 360 for the menu heading “Format” 358 is displayed.

By touching the keys representing the numbers “2” and “8” on numerickeypad 304, the user can also move up and down within a pull-down menusuch as pull-down menu 360. As the user moves through a pull-down menu,different items within the pull-down menu become highlighted. An exampleof a highlighted entry is entry 362 of FIG. 24, which highlights theentry “Tabs” of pull-down window 360 as the current entry. If the usertouches the key representing the number “8” while entry 362 is thecurrent entry, the application that receives the associated keyboardmessage highlights entry 364 located above entry 362 as the currententry. If the user touches the key representing the number “2” whileentry 362 is the current entry, entry 366 below entry 362 is highlightedas the current entry.

FIG. 24 can also be used to describe another embodiment of the presentinvention. In particular, pull-down window 360 may also be activated bypositioning the caret over the menu heading “Format” and depressing aselect button on a pointing device such as mouse 170 or trackball 220 ofFIGS. 4A and 15, respectively. The user may select an entry in pull-downwindow 360 by moving the pointing device downward through the list ofentries. As the user moves the input device, individual entries in thelist are highlighted.

In the prior art, pull-down menu 360 will continue to be displayed, evenif the caret is positioned outside of the pull-down menu itself. Theonly way to make the pull-down menu disappear is to click on an areaoutside of the menu itself. However, according to an illustrativeembodiment of the present invention, the application that produces thepull-down menu, removes the pull-down menu as soon as it receives amouse message that indicates that the user released the pointing device.This improves user efficiency by reducing the movements the user mustmake to close the pull-down windows associated with header menu 358.

FIG. 26 is an image of a display screen that includes a radial menu 370that is displayed according to another exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention. Radial menu 370 includes eight entries arranged in acircle 371 around a cancel button 372. Radial menu 370 may bemanipulated by, for example, using keyboard 300 of FIG. 18A or by usingthe touch sensors on button 670 of the mouse of FIG. 10H.

Using keyboard 300, a focus application displays radial menu 370 when itreceives a keyboard message indicating that a user touched one of thekeys in keypad 304. To highlight a specific entry, the user touches akey in keypad 304 that is spatially related to the entry. For example,to highlight entry 373 of radial menu 370, the user touches the keyrepresenting the number “8”, which is located directly above a centerkey representing the number “5” because the spatial positioning of the“8” key relative to the “5” key is the same as the spatial relationshipbetween entry 373 and cancel button 372. To select an entry, the userdepresses the key that causes the entry to be highlighted. To dismissthe radial menu, the user depress the “5” key.

To manipulate the radial menu using the touch sensors of button 670 onthe mouse of FIG. 10H, the user simply touches the touch sensor thatcorresponds to an entry on the radial menu. Simply touching thecorresponding touch sensor causes the entry to be highlighted.Depressing button 670 while touching the corresponding touch sensorcauses the entry to be selected. The application determines that bothevents have occurred based on two separate mouse messages. A first mousemessage indicates which touch sensor is currently being touched. Asecond mouse message indicates that the left button has been depressed.

According to illustrative embodiments of the invention, the use of touchsensitive controls and devices may be transparent to the user. Thecontext of the situation may be indicated by the user's preparatoryactions with the control, such as grabbing, touching, or approaching thecontrol device. Referring to FIG. 18B, for exemplary purposes, assumethat the current functionality of control knob 314 is to control thevolume of audio associated with media (as opposed to controlling thevolume for other system generated sounds). In this instance, if the userwishes to change the volume, the user may approach or touch the controlknob 314 with his hand. Before the user activates the control knob 314by turning the knob, a GUI for the volume control including the statusof the volume in the form of a screen volume indicator can appear onscreen as shown in FIG. 27. The user may then turn the control knob 314to adjust the volume or move a pointer (e.g., caret or arrow) into theGUI while contacting, but not turning, the control knob 314, and changethe volume using another control such as a key (e.g., arrow key), mouseor other pointing device. If the user touches the control knob 314 andthen employs a key or pointing device to change the volume while the GUIis visible, the change in volume state may be shown instantly in the GUIor elsewhere on the display screen. When the user releases the controlknob 314, the system knows the GUI is no longer needed, and it can causethe GUI to be dismissed without perceptible delay. In some embodiments,the GUI will remain visible as long as the pointing device continuesinteracting with or the cursor remains over the GUI.

In another illustrative embodiment of the invention, when the userapproaches or touches the control knob 314, without activating thecontrol, a display widget such as a tool tip can instantly be displayedon the display screen and identify the current functionality of thecontrol knob 314. For example, a tool tip may indicate, but is notlimited to, one of the following functions 1) tuning for a variety ofdifferent applications including audio and video applications; 2) volumecontrol for media applications; 3) volume control for system generatedsounds; and 4) control for numerous features which can have multiplesettings (e.g., brightness, cropping, color, etc.). In otherillustrative embodiments, as a user approaches a control, such ascontrol knob 314, visual feedback may be provided on the actual controlknob by an LED or LCD alone or in addition to the display widget on thedisplay screen. In still further illustrative embodiments, acoustic ortactile (e.g., vibration) feedback may be provided alone, or in additionto visual feedback on the display screen, input device and/or control,or to each other. Consequently, the input device or control may be ableto directly provide feedback (e.g., acoustic feedback) with or withoutinvolving or sharing the information with the host computer. In stillfurther exemplary embodiments, one or more portions (e.g., top and side)of the control, such as control knob 314, may be able to independentlydetect contact or user proximity and generate unique messages for thehost computer based on which portion of the control is being touched.

In another illustrative embodiment of the present invention based on thekeyboard input device of FIG. 18C, a touch sensitive rocker switch 315can be provided. In one context, the rocker switch 315 may allow a userto switch between applications similarly to using the combination of theAlt and Tab keys, currently used on operating systems such as Windows98®by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. That is, the rocker switch315 can allow a user to move forward and backward between runningapplications. Illustratively, when the user touches or approaches therocker switch 315, an on-screen display showing an icon for eachcurrently running application may be shown with the application in theforeground (at the top of the window stacking order) being highlightedas shown in FIG. 28. Pressing the rocker switch 315, can allow a user tomove forward or backward between the applications in order to highlightthe desired application to bring to the foreground of the display. Theorder may be determined in a number of ways, such as alphabetically orthe last time each application was in the foreground of the display.Releasing the rocker switch 315 can cause the highlighted application tobe selected and brought to the foreground of the display. It should beunderstood that the touch sensitive rocker switch 315 may used innumerous other applications including displaying different itemsresponsive to user contact or extreme proximity to the switch andhighlighting an item responsive to pressing of the switch and selectingan item from the list by releasing contact or moving away from theswitch.

An illustrative implementation of various auxiliary controls for anexemplary keyboard input device and their context sensitive response totouch are listed below in Table 1. It should be understood that thevarious controls and responses may be applied to other input devicessuch as game controllers, trackballs, mice, touchpads, etc.

TABLE 1 CONTEXT-SENSITIVE RESPONSE TO TOUCH MULTI MEDIA HOT CONTROL SETVolume Knob (e.g., Touching can show volume setting GUI with clickableslider (e.g., FIG. control knob 314 in 27) that can be used to adjustthe volume of audio associated with media FIG. 18B) or Volume (asopposed to the volume for other system-generated sounds). Touching Upand Volume the volume knob or at least one of the volume up and downkeys does not Down Keys alter the volume; it only brings up the display.The display disappears at the cessation of touch (possibly after a brieftime-out). Thus, the user can touch the volume knob or volume up anddown keys to view the current volume setting, without necessarilychanging it. One or more of Play, Touching can show a display widgetincluding a multimedia control Mute, Pause, Stop, panel. The multimediacontrol panel may show graphical representation of Next Track, Previousthe controls, plus other information such as album name, track name andTrack, and Eject Keys length, etc. APPLICATION LAUNCHING HOT CONTROL SETGeneral Application Touching can show programmed content; with clickablearea to launch Launch Button, or as specific applications, as well asother UI for adding, removing, or replacement or in reorganizingapplications that can be launched. combination with the behavior listedfor the controls below Mail Button Touching can show number of newmessages, brief summary of recent, unread high-priority messages, orbring an up Inbox window for the mail client. Word Processing Glanceinto running application: Touching the key can bring applicationApplication Button or to the foreground, releasing the key sends theapplication to the Key Combination; background. If the user actuallypresses the key, the application can come Spreadsheet forward and stayin the foreground when the user releases the key. If the ApplicationButton or application is not already running, touching the key may ormay not Key Combination; launch the application. Web Browser ApplicationButton or Key Combination; File Explorer Application Button or KeyCombination; Calculator Application Button or Key Combination WEBBROWSING HOT CONTROL SET Search Button Touching can show most recentlyused searches or equivalent of past activities or search results. BackButton; Forward Touching can show thumbnail or history of previous/nextwebsites Button visited. This feature can allow the user to see if thedesired page was available on the visited list, and to see how manytimes it would be necessary to press Forward or Back to reach a desiredpage. Stop or Refresh Touching can show current page loading information(if any), including Buttons or Keys amount of page loaded and expectedtime to complete the download, as well as any status or errorinformation, allowing the user to decide whether they want to stop.Favorites Button Touching can show most recently used favorites or UIfor organizing favorites. SYSTEM/GENERAL CONTROLS Application Touchingoptions may include: 1) Show/Hide the Task Bar when the user SwitchingControl: touches or releases the Application Switch Control; 2) Changethe content (e.g., Rocker Switch of Task Bar, showing more or lessdetail, or emphasizing the Task Bar so (e.g., rocker switch it is clearhow the user is changing applications, and the next or previous 315 inFIG. 18C), application to appear is more predictable; 3) Showing aseparate on-screen Dial Switch, or display of running applications(titles, icons (e.g., FIG. 28), or Previous App/Next thumbnails) so thatthe user can more efficiently navigate to the desired App Keys, and Keyapplication. For example, the current on-screen display for the Alt-TabCombinations) key combination can appear when the user touches thecontrol. Sleep Control, Switch Touching can cause GUI to be displayedshowing options for sleep mode or Key Combination including Stand By,Log Off, Restart, and Shut Down. Vertical and/or Touching can hide thescrollbars and/or other ancillary UI such as Horizontal Scrollingtoolbars and status indicators while scrolling, or as long as the userControls maintains contact with the scrolling mechanism (e.g., wheel,touchpad). Cut, Copy, Paste Key Touching can show contents of theclipboard or collect-and-paste Combinations clipboard(s). Stop (Esc),Help, Touching can 1) show status of alerts; or 2) show macros ofprogrammed New, Open, Close, keys. Undo, Redo, Minimize, Minimize AllControls Spell Check Key Touching can show/hide indicators ofspelling/grammar issues, such as Combinations the “red squiggly” linesthat are used to highlight spelling errors in Microsoft Word ®. Save orSave As Key Touching can show time, date, location, and file type formost recent save. Combinations Print Control (e.g., Touching can showcurrent printer queue and job status for default Key Combination)printer(s). “Welcome” Control Touching can show log-on status. Log-onstatus information can include, among other information, log-on id,domain, status of login, and a log of any errors or delays encountered.Fn (function key Touching can show 1) on-screen display of mappedfunctionality of F1– access) F12 keys for given application; or 2)on-screen display for each F1–F12 key if Fn locked on. Help functionWhen help function is selected, context sensitive help can be displayedon activated, any control touch of controls on the input device (e.g.,mouse or keyboard). Help finding a key The keyboard help can direct userto a key by sensing where the user is on the keyboard and pointing theuser to the right key. Key Combinations Touching keys in combination candisplay the key combination function (e.g., Ctrl key + c key = copy). Itmight also show status or state information associated with the command.For example, the Ctrl key + c key could show the current clipboardcontents (or alternatively, the clipboard contents that would result ifthe user were to execute the command). Context Menu Key Touching canshow the right-click context menu for the current cursor or pointerposition, which may change as the user moves the mouse cursor orpointer. ScrollLock Key; Touching keys can show lock status, (i.e., onor off). Touch sensitive NumLock feature may be used to replace LEDs.Key; Caps Lock Key GAME CONTROLS Buttons, Keys Touching specific buttonsor keys can show maps, tools, views, etc. Controls Touching specificcontrol can show its function. MAIL CONTROLS Reply, Forward, SendTouching control can 1) show status of alerts; 2) show macros ofControls (e.g., Keys programmed keys; or 3) show other mail statusinformation as detailed as the Mail application launch key describedabove including number of new messages, brief summary of recent, unreadhigh-priority messages, or bring an up Inbox window for the mail client.Touching the control might also show additional information specific toa current message that the user is contemplating replying to, such asshowing other recent messages sent to the same recipient. NUMBER PAD +,−, /, *, = Keys In spreadsheet or word processing application, afteruser has selected range of cells (e.g., column), touching an operationkey can perform the operation or show what result of operation would bewithout actually inserting it into the spreadsheet. NumLock Key Touchingcan show current state of numeric keypad lock.

Below, Table 2 describes illustrative techniques for context-sensitiveresponse to touch on an exemplary mouse input device according to thepresent invention.

TABLE 2 INPUT CONTEXT-SENSITIVE CONTROL RESPONSE TO TOUCH Right mouse Asmall raised area in the corner of the right mouse button button or canbe touch sensitive. The user can use the right mouse portion button asusual if he or she does not touch this area. This thereof raised arealooks different and invites touching, leading to discovery ofright-click functionality. If the user touches this area, the rightmouse context menu can appear. As the user moves the mouse around whiletouching this area, con- text menus for the different objects canappear. The user can then click the right mouse button per usual tointeract with the menu. Wheel Touching shows current configuration andcustomization algorithms for how the wheel can be used (e.g., lines pernotch for scrolling, scrolling acceleration, assignment ofmiddle-button-click functionality). Touching can also show or hide thescroll bar.

In addition to many of the types of visual feedback that may be providedon a screen in response to user contact with a touch-sensitive control,another possibility is to display a standard tool tip, such as thoseillustrated in FIGS. 29A and 29B when key combinations or other controlsare set to perform the copy (e.g., Ctrl key+c key together) and paste(e.g., Ctrl key+v key together) functions, respectively. That is, whenthe user touches the “Ctrl” key and “c” key together, the tool tip“Copy” displayed in FIG. 29A may appear on the screen and when the usertouches the “Ctrl” key +“v” key together, the tool tip “Paste” shown inFIG. 29B may appear on the screen.

Typically, the on-screen display can be placed near the current cursoror pointer (e.g., caret) position regardless of the input device thatthe user touches. For example, a keyboard tool tip could appear next tothe cursor. Popping up the on-screen display to the right of and abovethe current cursor position can be beneficial, since the on-screendisplay does not conflict with traditional tool tips which appear whenthe user dwells with the pointer over an icon (tool tip appears to theright of and below the pointer or cursor) in the Windows® operatingsystem by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. The tool tip canfollow the cursor or pointer as the user moves the cursor or pointerwith a pointing device (e.g., mouse), or it can remain stationary at thepoint where it initially appears. Maintaining the tool tip where itappears rather than moving the tool tip with the cursor is easier toimplement and more efficient, and would likely be well accepted byusers. According to other exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention, the display widget may be displayed at the center of thescreen, at the center of the currently active (“focus”) application orwidget (e.g. a text entry box), at the bottom of the screen, or abovethe system tray icons.

FIGS. 30A and 30B show other exemplary display widgets (on-screendisplays) exemplifying keyboard control functionality on a perapplication basis that can be displayed in response to a user touchingprogrammable keyboard hot keys and function “F” keys according toillustrative embodiments of the present invention. If a user simplytouches, but does not activate, a key, the on-screen display mayindicate what the key is and/or what it does—without actually performingthe function. FIG. 30A shows an exemplary on-screen display of akeyboard hot key GUI including selectable (e.g., by mouse or otherpointing device) options to customize or view settings of the keyboardhot key in response to a user touching a key. That is, a user may clickon the “Reassign HotKey” area of the GUI to see the current function ofthe hot key (which may be a combination of keys) and reassign the hotkey functionality. FIG. 30B provides another exemplary on-screen displayof a keyboard hot key GUI including selectable to customize or viewsettings of the keyboard hot key in response to a user touching a key.FIG. 30B differs from FIG. 30A in providing more detailed information tothe user as to what the key is and what it does (e.g., launches MyComputer application). In some embodiments, the touch-triggered GUI canreceive the keyboard focus as soon as the user touches the associatedcontrol. This would allow the user to immediately strike the “R” key, inthe “Reassign HotKey” example above, to activate the alternativefunction. In other embodiments, the touch-triggered GUI may not receivethe keyboard focus. The user would have to click on the GUI with themouse, or switch to the keyboard focus using the Alt+Tab key combinationfor example, or another method of switching between top-level windows.This latter embodiment prevents the touch-triggered GUI from receivingkeyboard input that the user may not intend for it to receive. Thepreferred embodiment depends on the details of the specific inputdevice, touch-sensitive control on that device, the current application,and possibly user preferences.

In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, each hot keymay be assigned a text macro, where activating the hot key causes ablock of text to be inserted, for example where the cursor is located onthe screen. When used in this context, touching a hot key displays atleast the beginning or another portion, if not all, of the text macroassigned to the hot key as shown in FIG. 31. The on-screen displaywindow may automatically resize according to the amount of text assignedto the text macro in order to display all the text. This context mayalso be used in conjunction with scrolling controls such that a user,while touching the hot key assigned the text macro, may scroll throughthe text.

As mentioned previously, according to some exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention, acoustic or tactile feedback may be employed.Acoustic or tactile feedback can be used in combination with orseparately from visual feedback on the display. In some cases, visualfeedback may not be appropriate, or acoustic feedback may be desiredbecause of the currently running application, the input device that iscurrently being used, or user preference.

According to certain embodiments of the invention, acoustic feedback,for example, appropriate cue tones or other sounds could be generated,as the user touches a control. A desired audio cue tone may be mapped toa specific function or control. Volume, pitch, and timbre could beadjusted to produce appropriate cues that mimic desired sounds, such asvoice-generated announcement of a control function. Cue sounds may begenerated by taking parametric sound event requests and sequencing themusing MIDI wavetable synthesizer 662 through audio generator 640(illustratively the Creative Labs AWE64 Gold card sound board) (see FIG.6). The specific techniques for establishing correct audio parametersfor each audio cue, properly synthesizing the audio cues, andassociating cues with corresponding controls and/or functions have beenomitted for simplicity as they are all readily apparent to those skilledin the art and do not form part of the present invention.

Acoustic feedback to identify functionality and other information may beparticularly useful for gaming applications and products such as the MSGame Voice™ by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. For example,gaming products may include a headset microphone combination attached toa puck. A puck allows a user to selectively talk to multiplecombinations of people and teams with whom he or she is playing. Eachperson may be automatically assigned a code (1,2,3 . . . ) and a team(A,B,C . . . ). A problem may arise when the player has to rememberwhich code corresponds to which player and team. When the user wants areminder to whom a button is assigned, the user may touch a control(e.g., number key) and receive acoustic feedback of the name of theperson assigned that code via their headset.

In one exemplary embodiment of the present invention identified in Table1, multiple touch areas on an input device can be used to page backwardsand forwards through web pages provided by an Internet browser. Examplesof input devices having multiple touch sensitive areas useful in pagingbackward and forward include, among others, the mice of FIGS. 10C, 10D,12A, 12B, 13A, 13B, and 13C. In FIG. 10C, touching region 624 and thenregion 626 initiates a page backward function and touching region 626and then region 624 initiates a page forward function. In FIG. 10D,touching region 637 and then region 634 initiates a page backwardfunction and touching region 634 and then region 637 initiates a pageforward function. In FIGS. 12A and 12B, touching regions 722 and 724,respectively, and then regions 720 and 728, respectively, initiates pageforward functions and touching regions 720 and 728, respectively, andthen regions 722 and 724, respectively, initiates page backwardfunctions. In FIGS. 13A, 13B, and 13C, touching regions 734, 738, and746, respectively, and then touching regions 736, 742 and 748,respectively, initiates page forward functions and touching regions 736,742, and 748, respectively, and then touching regions 734, 738, and 746,respectively, initiates page backward functions.

Note that a mouse according to an illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention can be configured so that paging functions are initiatedsimply by touching one touch sensor instead of touching a sequence oftwo touch sensors. Thus, in FIG. 10C touching region 624 can initiate apage forward function and touching region 626 can initiate a pagebackward function. Similarly, touching region 734 of FIG. 13A caninitiate a page forward function and touching region 736 of FIG. 13A caninitiate a page backward function. In this context, the touch sensors ofthe present invention provide the functionality of the side switchesfound in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/153,148 filed on Sep. 14,1998 entitled “INPUT DEVICE WITH FORWARD/BACKWARD CONTROL”, theinventors of which were under a duty to assign the application to theassignee of the present application.

The paging functions performed using these touch areas are shown inFIGS. 32-34. In FIG. 32 display 460 shows an Internet browser window 462that depicts a current page 464. A user can page backward to theInternet page that was displayed before current page 464 to display apast page 470 of FIG. 33, which is shown in Internet browser window 472.The user can move forward to a next page 476, shown in browser window478 of display 480 in FIG. 34, using the touch sensor combinationdescribed above. In order to be able move forward to next page 476, theuser must at some point move backward from next page 476 to current page464.

It should be understood that the various responses to making contactwith or being in extreme proximity to a touch sensitive control may beused in combination. For example, when a user first makes contact with abutton, the button's function may be displayed. In one implementation,if the user maintains contact with the button for more than a prescribedamount of time (e.g., five seconds), more detailed status informationmay be displayed or a GUI may be available to the user. Alternatively,successive touches of the same button within a predetermined period oftime may cause different types of information to be displayed such asthe button functionality followed by a GUI. Tactile or acoustic feedbackmay also be provided following an initial touch with a display of thesame or more detailed information following a second touch in apredetermined time period or after touching has been detected for aprescribed time period.

In responsive to detection of a user in contact with or proximate to aninput device or auxiliary control of the device, the on-screen displayof a display widget may occur instantaneously. Frequently, it may bedesirable to delay the appearance of the display widget on the screenslightly so that if a user activates, rather than merely touches, thecontrol or device to activate a function, for example, the displaywidget will not rapidly appear and disappear from the screen. Delayingthe appearance of the display widget a predefined amount of time canprevent unnecessarily displaying of a display widget with tool tipinformation for example, to a user who is familiar with the activeapplication and the operation of an input device and its auxiliarycontrols and who rapidly activates the device or its control (e.g.,depresses a button) to activate a function. Several illustrativetechniques according to the invention are described below that addresscontrolling the display.

In one embodiment of the invention, a brief time period on the order of0.3 seconds may be employed. In this instance, if a user makes contactwith, but does not activate, a key or other control within the brieftime period, then the on-screen display appears. If the user activatesthe control before the expiration of the brief time period, theon-screen display would not be displayed in response to the usercontacting the control.

According to some embodiments of the invention, activation of thecontrol (e.g., turning a knob) causes the state of the functioncontrolled (e.g., volume) to change and may display a GUI (e.g., volumesetting) as the user changes the state (e.g., volume setting). Incontrast, when touching, but not activating, the control for the entirebrief period, a GUI representing the existing state (e.g., currentvolume) of the function may be displayed without causing the state to bechanged.

Similarly, according to embodiments of the present invention, a brieftime period may also be used to control disappearing or fading out ofthe on-screen display when a user ceases contact with a control. In thisinstance, the on-screen display remains visible during the brief timeperiod, at the expiration of which the on-screen display disappears orfades out. If the user again touches the control before the brief timeperiod expires, the on-screen display remains visible. It should beunderstood that the same type of time periods may be applied inembodiments of the present invention in which detecting contact of acontrol by a user causes a display widget to be dismissed (i.e.,disappear or fade-out) and ceasing contact of the control causes thedisplay widget to reappear or fade-in.

According to illustrative embodiments of the invention, when a displaywidget including a tool tip or other information appears, schemes forsuch display can be based on a number of criteria including the control,timeout and other information such as mouse movement. FIGS. 35A-35Cgraphically depict three illustrative alternatives as to the timing andconditions involved with a touch sensitive mouse that causes a displaywidget such as a tool tip to appear on a display screen.

FIG. 35A shows a timing diagram for an exemplary embodiment in which abutton tool tip is displayed on the display screen following a brieftime-out (Δt). The time-out suppresses the button tool if the userbriefly touches the button, briefly touches the button beforeactivating, or accidentally brushes against the touch sensor, as shownwith the button being touched for less than the brief time-out period(Δt). Also, as shown, when a button is touched for a period longer thanthe brief time-out (Δt), the tool tip becomes visible. The tool tipremains visible until the user releases contact with the button. In thisexample, movement of the mouse has no impact on the display of the tooltip.

According to the timing diagram shown in FIG. 35B of an illustrativeembodiment of the invention, the button tool tip is not displayed whenthe user is touching the button (not activating) and moving the mouse.If the user continues to contact the button and stops moving the mousefor the time-out period (Δt), the button tip is displayed. As in FIG.35A, the tool tip remains visible until the user releases contact withthe button.

In the timing diagram depicted in FIG. 35C, if, when the user touchesthe button and the mouse is still, the user continues to touch thebutton and not move the mouse for the time-out period (Δt), the tool tipis displayed. As in FIGS. 35A and 35B, the tool tip remains visibleuntil the user releases contact with the button.

Another aspect of display schemes for the touch sensitive input controldisplay involves the response of a tool tip or other display widget touser activation of the button or other input control. After the useractivates the control, the user may no longer desire the feedback (ofthe resulting action or otherwise). For example, at the time that a userclicks a button (button down event), the button tool tip can instantlydisappear (or fade out). Also, the button tool tip may reappear or stayhidden after a button up event occurs if the user maintains contact withthe button. The computer system can also display visual feedback toassociate the button click with the information displayed in the tooltip before the tool tip disappears. According to an illustrativeembodiment as depicted by the timing diagram shown in FIG. 36A, after abutton down event caused by a button click, the button tool tip will notreappear until a user releases the button and again touches, but doesnot activate, the button for time period At. Stated differently,following activation of a button, the button tool tip will not bedisplayed until after the next rising edge of the button touch sensor asshown in FIG. 36A. According to another embodiment of the presentinvention depicted by the timing diagram in FIG. 36B, after a buttondown event followed by a button up event, the button tool tip reappearsafter the time-out Δt as long as the user continues to maintain contactwith the button.

Other embodiments of the invention involve handling simultaneous contactwith multiple controls on an input device. If a user touches one controlwhile maintaining contact with a second control, the on-screen displayor other feedback for the second control should be generated.Alternatively, certain functions can be defined by a combination ofcontrols, for example, key combinations. In this instance, the tool tipof the combination (e.g., key combination) is displayed when both keysare simultaneously touched but not activated, which will override thetool tip, if any, associated with the first key contacted. If the userreleases one of the controls, the on-screen display may be dismissed inits entirety, or the feedback for the other touched control can bereinstated.

In another embodiment of the present invention, once the on-screendisplay in the form of a GUI has appeared or faded in, the GUI mayremain visible if the cursor or pointer (e.g., by movement of a mouse)has been located therein, even if the user ceases contact of the control(e.g., button of a touch sensitive mouse) that caused the display of theGUI. In this instance, the GUI may eventually disappear in response tomovement of the cursor (e.g., movement of a mouse) outside of the GUI,activation of another control or after a predefined period (e.g., 5seconds) of inactivity in which no input is received by computer such asmovement of a mouse.

According to illustrative embodiments of the invention, an on-screendisplay may be faded-in and out using an animated transition. It shouldbe understood that techniques for controlling appearance anddisappearance of an on-screen display may be used alone or incombination. An embodiment of the invention providing animatedtransition is described below with respect to FIG. 37.

FIG. 37 depicts simplified block diagram 900 of high-level software andhardware components, situated within PC 20, for displaying anddismissing, on an on-demand basis, a display widget such as a Tool Glasssheet, or toolbar. As shown in FIG. 37, these components includeapplication 36, operating system 35, video adapter 48, display 47, inputinterface 46, and input devices 43. Application program 36 (e.g., a wordprocessing or spreadsheet program), can include GUI 910 therein andwithin the GUI, fade-in/fade-out animation process 915 and bitmapgenerator 920, the latter including Tool Glass pattern 922, toolbarpattern(s) 924 and other display widget pattern(s) 926. Other componentsinclude, within operating system 35, input device drivers 60 andGraphics API (application programming interface) 940.

The touch outputs provided by input devices 43 can be applied, asrepresented by leads 903 and 907, respectively, to input interfaces 46.These interfaces can produce separate signals reflective of whethercontact is then being sensed or not by the contact sensor of each touchsensitive component (e.g., auxiliary control) of each input device.These signals may be routed, as represented by lead 905, to input devicedrivers 60 that form a component within operating system 35. The devicedrivers interpret the signals produced by the input devices and, inresponse, generate appropriate events. With respect to touch, theseevents can specify the particular input device and the state of thecorresponding touch sensor, e.g., whether hand contact is detected.These events can be passed by operating system 35 to application 36 and,ultimately within the application, to GUI process 910. Within thisprocess, the events are processed by fade-in/fade-out animation process915. The animation process, in response to the occurrence of a statetransition of each input device, i.e., whether that device has juststarted sensing hand contact or has just ceased sensing such contact,and whether a display widget (e.g., Tool Glass or toolbar(s)) is thenbeing displayed or not, will generate a predefined animation sequence toeither controllably fade-in or fade-out the display widget.

Bitmap generator 920 stores predefined patterns 922, 924 and 926,typically texture maps, for the various display widgets, including theTool Glass sheet, predefined toolbar(s) and/or other display widgets,respectively. These patterns are typically stored as separate fileswithin the application. As application program 36 is invoked, theapplication, during initialization or after any change to the widget,downloads these patterns to Graphics API 940 via line 930 which, inturn, may route these patterns to a graphics accelerator (not shown) forlocal storage therein as texture maps. Alternatively, this downloadingmay be managed by a service provided by operating system 35.

During subsequent display, the accelerator will read these maps from itslocal store, polygonally fill these maps as appropriate, and renderresulting filled patterns on display 47. Once these maps have beendownloaded, then, for either a controlled fade-in/fade-out operation,animation process 915 changes an alpha-transparency value at which thegraphics accelerator will render a corresponding filled pattern for adisplay widget. For a toolbar, the alpha-transparency value is variedacross a full range of transparency values (i.e., between approximately0α and 1.0α, on a linear scale of 0-1α where 0α is fully transparent and1.0is fully opaque). For a Tool Glass sheet, the alpha-transparencyvalue is varied across a range of typically 0α to approximately 0.7α,such that, even with the Tool Glass sheet rendered at its maximumopacity, underlying document objects are still visible (which someobscuration) through the sheet.

In essence, for a fade-in or fade-out operation, animation process 915will issue a series of instructions over a predefined interval of time,specifically one such instruction for each different display frame, tosuccessively change the alpha-transparency value with which a particulardisplay widget is to then be displayed. These instructions will beissued, as also represented by line 930, to operating system 35, which,in turn, will pass these instructions to Graphics API 940 and ultimatelyto a graphics accelerator.

Fade-in should occur over a relatively short interval of time, such ason the order of approximately 0.3 to 0.5 seconds. However, so as not todistract a user, fade-out should occur over a relatively long interval,such as on the order of approximately 0.7-1.0 seconds. During theseintervals, particularly on fade-in, the alpha-transparency values aregenerally varied in a non-linear fashion. Empirically, to utilize aconventional slow-in/slow-out technique commonly used in screenanimation has been chosen. With this technique, the opacity initiallychanges rather slowly from being substantially, if not, totallytransparent (i.e., essentially invisible) to an intermediate value, thenincreases rather quickly to another intermediate value with furtherincreases then slowing once again until a maximum opacity (either, e.g.,1α or 0.7α for a toolbar or Tool Glass sheet, respectively) iseventually reached. This results in an approximately “S” shaped curvefor opacity as a function of time. The same transparency variations areused for fading-out a display widget (though in a reverse direction).Clearly, other time-based opacity functions, such as a linear function,can be used to vary the opacity during the fade-in and fade-outintervals. Ultimately, the particular function(s) chosen (with possiblya different function being used for fade-in versus fade-out and, infact, different such functions can be used for different displaywidgets, if desired) will likely be empirically determined throughappropriate user testing.

Furthermore, a human eye exhibits increased sensitivity to certaincolors, such as, e.g., red tones, over others, such as blue tones, for acommon luminance. Hence, fading-in a display widget that contains any ofthe former colors, even at relatively low luminance, could bepotentially distracting and more so particularly as these colors becomebrighter. To avoid such distraction, the display widget could berepresented by several different texture maps of different or varyingcoloration and luminance—particularly for color(s) to which the humaneye is most sensitive—until a final map with desired coloration andluminance is displayed. In that regard, a monochrome texture map forthis widget could be initially displayed, with texture maps for the samewidget but having desired coloration with increasing luminance (or evendifferent coloration for that matter) then being rendered at appropriatetimes during fade-in, until at the end of the fade-in period, a texturemap having a final coloration and luminance is rendered. Fade-out couldbe accomplished in a similar, though reverse fashion. For example, adisplay widget could fade-out using a succession of colored texturemaps, of decreasing luminance, to a monochrome map which itself thenfades out to total transparency, or, at the inception of fade-out,change to a monochrome map of the widget and from there fade-out tototal transparency.

If a graphics accelerator is not used, then, as symbolized by line 955,Graphics API 940 can provide graphics output directly to video adapter48 (specifically a standard video card, not shown, therein), which, inturn, will generate appropriate video signals and apply those signals todisplay 692. In this instance, the computer system would need to besufficiently fast to implement the appropriate graphics capabilities,that would have been provided by the graphics accelerator, in software.Furthermore, where fade-in and fade-out graphics capabilities are notsupported, the display and dismissal of display widgets could occurthrough other visual techniques. These techniques include, e.g., simplytranslating the widget by sliding or shuffling it onto the screen froman off-screen position; instantly and completely displaying ordismissing the widget; rotating the widget (if, e.g., a toolbar is on a3-D surface that rotates into place) and/or zooming in or out interfacewidgets or portions of a document. However, with these techniques, thedisplay widgets such as the toolbars and the Tool Glass sheet areconstrained to being displayed fully opaque. Any of these techniquescould also be used along with fading with a graphics accelerator thatsupports alpha-transparency.

Although alpha-transparency capability is supported by a wide variety ofcurrently existing graphics accelerators, this capability can be readilysimulated in software, in a well-known manner, by conventional 2-D(two-dimensional) or 3-D (three-dimensional) graphics APIs, such as D3D(which is a 3-D graphics API currently produced by Microsoft Corporationas a standard component of a WINDOWS® operating system), OpenGL (whichis currently available in the art) or GDI (which historically is only a2-D low-level graphics processing layer currently produced by MicrosoftCorporation and also incorporated as a standard component of a WINDOWS®operating system).

Instances can arise where a display screen is to simultaneously showboth a toolbar(s) and a Tool Glass sheet (or other combinations ofdisplay widgets). In these instances, unwanted interactions can arisethat would cause both widgets to fade-in or out. To prevent theseinteractions and attendant user frustration, an appropriate decisionprocess, well within the skill in the art, would be incorporated intoanimation process 915 to then permit only one, rather than both, ofthese display widgets to fade-in or out. For example, if both widgetswere being displayed but a user is then manipulating the Touch Mouse,then only the Tool Glass would be permitted to fade-out while thetoolbars remained fully displayed. The specific decision process wouldbe governed by the particular widgets that could be simultaneouslydisplayed, a need to continue displaying one or more these widgets basedon a current contextual setting of the application including anoperation then being performed, and relative display prioritizationamong these widgets.

It should be understood that the present invention may employ othersensing technologies, apart from touch sensing, to invoke on-demandaction, such as, e.g.: galvanic skin response, non-contact proximitysensors, pressure sensors, events from touch/proximity sensors on akeyboard, data from a GPS (global positioning system) receiver (positionof the user or location of a mobile computer), video data from a camera,and audio data from a microphone.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed and illustrated, it should be understood that the invention isnot limited thereto since modifications may be made by persons skilledin the art. The present application contemplates any and allmodifications that fall within the spirit and scope of the underlyinginvention disclosed and claimed herein.

1. In a computer system having an auxiliary control and a displayscreen, the auxiliary control being assigned a first function in a firstapplication and a second function in a second application, a methodcomprising the steps of: detecting a physical presence proximate to orcontacting the auxiliary control for a first predefined period withoutthe physical presence causing a function assigned to the auxiliarycontrol to be activated; in the first application program, displaying afirst display widget on the display screen responsive to said step ofdetecting, the first display widget providing status information for thefirst function assigned to the auxiliary control in the firstapplication program; and in the second application program differentfrom the first application program, displaying a second display widgeton the display screen responsive to said detecting, the second displaywidget providing status information for the second function assigned tothe auxiliary control in the second application program.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: detecting absenceof the physical presence proximate to or contacting the auxiliarycontrol for a second predefined period in which the auxiliary controlhas not been activated while displaying the first display widget; anddiscontinuing display of the first display widget, responsive todetecting the absence of the physical presence.
 3. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein the auxiliary control is one of a button or a key.4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the physical presence is ahand of a user.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firstdisplay widget and the second display widget are different.
 6. In acomputer system having an auxiliary control and a display screen, theauxiliary control being assigned a multimedia function, a methodcomprising the steps of: detecting a physical presence proximate to orcontacting the auxiliary control for a predefined period without thephysical presence causing the multimedia function assigned to theauxiliary control to be activated; and displaying a display widget onthe display screen responsive to said step of detecting, the displaywidget providing status information for the multimedia function assignedto the auxiliary control, the status information identifying at leastone of track name, track time remaining, track length, album title andalbum length in a multimedia application.
 7. The method according toclaim 6, wherein said step of displaying further includes displaying amultimedia control panel.
 8. In a computer system having an auxiliarycontrol and a display screen, the auxiliary control being assigned afunction of switching focus between currently running applications, amethod comprising the steps of: while a first currently runningapplication is in focus, detecting a physical presence proximate to orcontacting the auxiliary control for a predefined period without thephysical presence causing the function of switching focus to anothercurrently running application assigned to the auxiliary control to beactivated; and displaying a display widget on the display screenresponsive to said step of detecting, the display widget providingstatus information for the function assigned to the auxiliary control,the status information identifying each of the currently runningapplications.
 9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising thestep of placing a second currently running application in the foregroundof the display screen, responsive to a user activating the auxiliarycontrol to switch focus to the second currently running application. 10.In a computer system having an auxiliary control and a display screen,the auxiliary control being assigned a function of showing a task bar, amethod comprising the steps of: detecting a physical presence proximateto or contacting the auxiliary control for a predefined period withoutthe physical presence causing the function of showing the task barassigned to the auxiliary control to be activated; and displaying adisplay widget on the display screen responsive to said step ofdetecting, the display widget providing status information for thefunction of showing the task bar assigned to the auxiliary control, thestatus information including the task bar.
 11. In a computer systemhaving an auxiliary control and a display screen, the auxiliary controlbeing assigned a first function in a first application and a secondfunction in a second application, a method comprising the steps of:detecting a physical presence proximate to or contacting the auxiliarycontrol for a predefined period without the physical presence causing afunction assigned to the auxiliary control to be activated; anddisplaying a display widget on the display screen responsive to saidstep of detecting, the display widget providing status information forthe function assigned to the auxiliary control, wherein a type of statusinformation for the first function assigned to the auxiliary controldisplayed when a first application program is active is different from atype of status information for the second function assigned to theauxiliary control displayed when a second application program is active.12. In a computer system having an auxiliary control and a displayscreen, the auxiliary control being assigned a messaging relatedfunction, a method comprising the steps of: detecting a physicalpresence proximate to or contacting the auxiliary control for apredefined period without the physical presence causing the messagingrelated function on assigned to the auxiliary control to be activated;and displaying a display widget on the display screen responsive to saidstep of detecting, the display widget providing status information forthe messaging related function assigned to the auxiliary control,wherein the status information includes one of the number of new orunread regular or high priority messages, an in box window, briefinformation regarding at least one of the most recently receivedmessages, and alert status.
 13. In a computer system having an auxiliarycontrol and a display screen, the auxiliary control being assigned a webbrowsing function, a method comprising the steps of: detecting aphysical presence proximate to or contacting the auxiliary control for apredefined period without the physical presence causing the web browsingfunction assigned to the auxiliary control to be activated; anddisplaying a display widget on the display screen responsive to saidstep of detecting, the display widget providing status information forthe web browsing function assigned to the auxiliary control, wherein thestatus information includes at least one of the most recently usedsearches, at least one of the most recently obtained search results,identification of previous and next web pages which may be visited, listof favorite web pages, and current page loading information.
 14. In acomputer system having an auxiliary control and a display screen, theauxiliary control being assigned a function of pasting contents of aclipboard, a method comprising the steps of: detecting a physicalpresence proximate to or contacting the auxiliary control for apredefined period without the physical presence causing the function ofpasting contents of the clipboard assigned to the auxiliary control tobe activated; and displaying a display widget on the display screenresponsive to said step of detecting, the display widget providingstatus information for the function of pasting contents of the clipboardassigned to the auxiliary control, wherein the status informationidentifies the contents of the clipboard.
 15. In a computer systemhaving an auxiliary control and a display screen, the auxiliary controlbeing assigned a save function while in a document, a method comprisingthe steps of: while in a document, detecting a physical presenceproximate to or contacting the auxiliary control for a predefined periodwithout the physical presence causing the save function assigned to theauxiliary control to be activated; and displaying a display widget onthe display screen responsive to said step of detecting, the displaywidget providing status information for the save function assigned tothe auxiliary control, wherein the status information identifies atleast one of time, date, location, file type and size of most recentlysaved for the document.
 16. In a computer system having an auxiliarycontrol assigned a mathematical function in an application and a displayscreen, a method comprising the steps of: receiving a selection of arange of cells in the applications; while the cells are selected,detecting a physical presence proximate to or contacting the auxiliarycontrol for a predefined period without the physical presence causingthe mathematical function assigned to the auxiliary control to beactivated; and displaying a display widget on the display screenresponsive to said step of detecting, the display widget providingstatus information for the mathematical function assigned to theauxiliary control, wherein the status information identifies a result ifthe mathematical function would be applied to the selected cells.